The Colombian government agreed to buy 3 million hectares of arable land from large landowners to redistribute to those affected by the armed conflict.
President Gustavo Petro and the president of the Federation of Breeders of Fedegan, José Félix Lafaurie, officially signed on Saturday.
The land purchases would allow the government to put into effect agreements reached with those affected as part of a 2016 peace deal with the now-defunct FARC guerrilla organization.
The agreement with the breeders’ federation was negotiated through the Minister of Agriculture, Cecilia López.
The agriculture minister said on Twitter that the government would want about six years to buy land from peasants whose homes were dispossessed from the armed conflict.
Lopez also said the government will be wary of buying infertile or illegally acquired land.
The vast majority of Colombia’s nine million victims of armed conflict have been forcibly displaced through illegal armed groups.
Tens of thousands of those sick cannot return to their land because they have discovered themselves in the hands of others through all kinds of scams.
It is hoped that the acquisition of arable land and the seizure of illegally received land will enable many of those affected to return to their homes or resume their agricultural lifestyle.
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